Insectivorous Plants

The results of experiments on plants which showed evolutionary adaptation in their highly specialised methods of obtaining nutrients.

Charles Darwin (Author)

9781108004848, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

476 pages, 30 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.6 kg

Darwin had long been fascinated by insectivorous plants, from the native British sundews and bladderworts to the exotic pinguiculas and nepenthes which he encountered during the Beagle voyage. Growing in environments low in soil nutrients, their highly specialised ways of obtaining enough food, including the capability for fast movement in the case of the Venus flytrap, were evidence of evolutionary adaptation. But he was also interested in what food they needed, and whether they would be selective when offered a varied diet; and how did the flytrap close its trap on its prey? Darwin conducted a range of simple but ingenious experiments on his collection of insectivores and observed and noted the results of each with his customary meticulousness. The results can be seen in this book, which remains of enormous interest to anyone whose imagination has been fired by these strange and beautiful plants.

1. Drosera rotundifolia, or the common sun-dew
2. The movements of the tentacles from the contact of solid bodies
3. Aggregation of the protoplasm within the cells of the tentacles
4. The effects of heat on the leaves
5. The effects of non-nitrogenous and nitrogenous organic fluids on the leaves
6. The digestive power of the secretion of Drosera
7. The effects of salts of ammonia
8. The effects of various other salts, and acids, on the leaves
9. The effects of certain alkaloid poisons, other substances and vapours
10. On the sensitiveness of the leaves, and on the lines of transmission of the motor impulse
11. Recapitulation of the chief observations on Drosera rotundifolia
12. On the structure and movements of some other species of Drosera
13. Dionaea muscipula
14. Aldrovanda vesiculosa
15. Drosophyllum, Roridula, Byblis, glandular hairs of other plants, concluding remarks on the Droseraceae
16. Pinguicula
17. Utricularia
18. Utricularia (continued)
Index.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ]